.Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (Pāli/Sanskrit "the awakened one").^Prince Siddhartha Gautama, known as Buddha or the Enlightened One is considered a Dravidian (or African).

^There is a big difference between, accepting your indirect roll in world suffering by just being alive in the first world, and personally pushing the button annihilating a city with hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in a blip."

In some classifications Vajrayana, a subcategory of Mahayana, is recognized as a third branch. .While Buddhism remains most popular within Asia, both branches are now found throughout the world.^We now know not only of the existence of a break between the living and non-living world, but also that it represents the most dramatic and fundamental of all the discontinuities of nature.

^Both Taoism and Buddhism experience from within systems of understanding that must finally negate and abandon themselves; both practices can only happen when they are free of the constraints of themselves.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

^What should surprise you most is that throughout human history millions of people around the world have had similar experiences as a result of prayer and belief in God.

.Various sources put the number of Buddhists in the world at between 230 million and 500 million,[3] making it the world's fourth-largest religion.^Brazil has the world's largest Catholic population but Protestant groups have been making inroads for decades.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^The fourth is metaphysical--it can't be confirmed in a lab that nirvana actually happens, but in context to the Buddhist system, it definitely makes sense that it could happen.

[4].The foundations of Buddhist tradition and practice are the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community).^A traditional Buddhist dialogue reflects the same principle: The Buddha was asked, “Are you God?” “No,” he said.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

[5][6].Taking "refuge in the triple gem" has traditionally been a declaration and commitment to being on the Buddhist path and in general distinguishes a Buddhist from a non-Buddhist.^Most Buddhists believe that Siddhartha Gautama was a regular human being who had for many lifetimes progressed gradually on the "path to awakening."

Life of the Buddha

Ascetic Gautama with his five companions, who later comprised the first Sangha.^The Jewish Scriptures comprised the Pentateuch, the first five books of the law - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy - the Psalms and the Prophets.

.According to the Theravada Tipitakascriptures, the Buddha was born in Lumbini, around the year 563 BCE, and raised in Kapilavastu; both in modern-day Nepal.^A year is recorded by the time it takes the earth to rotate around the sun, a month by the moons rotation around the earth, a day by the full rotation of the earth upon its axis.

.Shortly after Siddhartha's birth, an astrologer visited the young prince's father—King Śuddhodana—and prophesied that Siddhartha would either become a great king or renounce the material world to become a holy man, depending on whether he saw what life was like outside the palace walls.^It would be silly of me to believe that he is a "great man."

^There are also some intensely powerful guides to life and its decisions that are coded within the narratives of the world's holy books.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

Śuddhodana was determined to see his son become a king so he prevented him from leaving the palace grounds. But at age 29, despite his father's efforts, Siddhartha ventured beyond the palace several times. .In a series of encounters—known in Buddhist literature as the four sights[10]—he learned of the suffering of ordinary people, encountering an old man, a sick man, a corpse and, finally, an asceticholy man, apparently content and at peace with the world.^How can it be a moral “absolute” if there are people in the world that apparently don’t think it is immoral.

.These experiences prompted Gautama to abandon royal life and take up a spiritual quest.^By 1977 Andrew Harvey had become disillusioned with life at Oxford and returned to his native India, where a series of mystical experiences initiated his spiritual journey.

Gautama first attempted an extreme ascetic life and almost starved himself to death in the process. But, after accepting milk and rice from a village girl in a pivotal moment, he changed his approach. .He concluded that extreme ascetic practices, such as prolonged fasting, breath-holding, and exposure to pain, brought little spiritual benefit.^The Spiritual Satanist Blog offers a great little "how-to" kind of post entitled "5 Ways to Improve your Occult Practice."

^If on the other hand such spirituality is indeed practiced and tolerated, why not the same extended to other mystic traditions or religions?

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

He saw them as forms of self-hatred that were therefore counterproductive.[11].He abandoned asceticism, concentrating instead on anapanasatimeditation, through which he discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way: a path of moderation between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.^I'd just like to see a world where, instead of saying "I am a Buddhist", people say, "I am practicing Buddhist meditation and I'm really into Buddhist philosophy.

Gautama was now determined to complete his spiritual quest. .At the age of 35, he famously sat in meditation under a sacred fig tree—also known as the Bodhi tree—in the town of Bodh Gaya, India, and vowed not to rise before achieving enlightenment.^Gaya : A city in ancient India near where Shakyamuni attained enlightenment.

Soon thereafter, he attracted a band of followers and instituted a monastic order. .Now as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his life teaching the path of awakening he discovered, traveling throughout the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent,[12][13] and died at the age of 80 (483 BCE) in Kushinagar, India.^It even tells us of our obligations to the rest of Life, and in Revelations we find this: Now is time.......for destroying those who are destroying the earth.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^Now we have substantiated that when human beings manifest their Buddha nature through Buddhist practice, human life can be characterized as possessing infinite potential to improve oneself.

The above narrative draws heavily on Theravada traditions. .However, later texts, such as the Mahayana Lalitavistara Sutra, give different accounts.^That is what the gospel accounts are, eyewitness testimony among other things such as historical texts.

^When Muhammad was accused by his opponents of giving contradictory statements in the Quran, as a result, he is said to have received the following revelation that Allah replaced some of the text of the Quran with a later text: .

True History of Islam, Mohammed and the Koran28 January 2010 0:00 UTCbibleprobe.com [Source type: Original source]

.Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life.^I make no claims about mystery.

.Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order but do not consistently accept the details in his biographies.^Between a living cell and the most highly ordered non-biological system, such as a crystal or a snowflake, there is a chasm as vast and absolute as it is possible to conceive....

[14][15].According to author Michael Carrithers, while there are good reasons to doubt the traditional account, "the outline of the life must be true: birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death."^Compare birth with death, compare death with life; compare what is possible with what is not possible and compare what is not possible with what is possible; because there is, there is not, and because there is not, there is.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

^The reasoning is, if the Genesis account is not true then life must have had another origin.

.In writing her biography of Buddha, Karen Armstrong noted, "It is obviously difficult, therefore, to write a biography of the Buddha that will meet modern criteria, because we have very little information that can be considered historically sound...^Because the average Italian salary is not high, they would have very little disposable income if they had to maintain their own home.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^Given what little Paul seems to know of Jesus and based on his writing and views it as very arguable that Paul did not believe in a "bodily" resurrection.

Life and the world

Karma as the law of cause and effect

.Karma (from Sanskrit: "action, work") in Buddhism is the force that drives saṃsāra—the cycle of suffering and rebirth for each being.^In Nichiren Buddhism, the bodhisattva is PERPETUALLY reborn on earth or earth like planets to work compassionately for his fellow sentient beings.

.Good, skillful deeds (Pāli: "kusala") and bad, unskillful (Pāli: "akusala") actions produce "seeds" in the mind which come to fruition either in this life or in a subsequent rebirth.^All we ever see is life coming from life, intelligence, logic and reason coming from a mind, so it is up to the atheist to prove that this is what actually happened and he has not done that.

[18] The avoidance of unwholesome actions and the cultivation of positive actions is called śīla (from Sanskrit: "ethical conduct").

.In Buddhism, karma specifically refers to those actions (of body, speech, and mind) that spring from mental intent ("cetana"),[19] and which bring about a consequence (or fruit, "phala") or result ("vipāka").^The way Sam talks about meditation in his speech, it appears that he has already adopted the philosophy of mind, psychology, and ethics, from Buddhism.

.Every time a person acts there is some quality of intention at the base of the mind and it is that quality rather than the outward appearance of the action that determines its effect[citation needed].^The deeper issue – of why there is something rather than nothing – is for mystics to contemplate” p.

^That is, they operate on the precept that ideas or consciousness precede material reality, rather than on the precept that material reality informs and determines how we humans construct ideas about material reality.

.In Theravada Buddhism there can be no divine salvation or forgiveness for one's karma, since it is a purely impersonal process that is a part of the make up of the universe.^There's no "rejection" involved in the process.

.Some Mahayana traditions however hold different views.^Many people nowadays are spiritually inclined, but take a broad inclusive view to religion, believing that a variety of religious traditions and practices all have some validity.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^I should also add, however, that there are some traditional Yorb healers who do not divine at all.

.For example, the texts of certain Mahayana sutras (such as the Lotus Sutra, the Angulimaliya Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra) claim that reciting or merely hearing their texts can expunge great swathes of negative karma.^Great Concentration and Insight : Tien-tais systematization of the Lotus Sutra.

.In like fashion, some forms of Buddhism (e.g.^In fact, I have experimented with various forms of "meditation" myself along with studying the various religions that incorporate some form of it into their rituals, such as Buddhism.

Vajrayana) regard the recitation of mantras as a means for cutting off previous negative karma.[20].Similarly, the Japanese Pure Land teacher Genshin taught that Amida Buddha has the power to destroy the karma that would otherwise bind one in saṃsāra.^After all no one would ever think of taking harmless musings of god and mind powers and turn them in to a religion(s), would they?

Rebirth

.Rebirth refers to a process whereby beings go through a succession of lifetimes as one of many possible forms of sentient life, each running from conception[23] to death.^It is not being presented to open the door to any debates on whether Horus and/or Jesus were born through a process of partheno-genesis.

.However, Buddhism rejects concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul, as it is called in Christianity or even Hinduism.^YOU: "By saying there is no permanent self, you are just seconding the atheist claim that there is no soul.

.As there ultimately is no such thing as a self (the doctrine of anatta) according to Buddhism, rebirth in subsequent existences must rather be understood as the continuation of a dynamic, ever-changing process of "dependent arising" ("pratītyasamutpāda") determined by the laws of cause and effect (karma) rather than that of one being, transmigrating or incarnating from one existence to the next.^There is no need for this marriage thing.

Devas including Brahmas: variously translated as gods, deities, spirits, angels, or left untranslated

.Rebirths in some of the higher heavens, known as the Śuddhāvāsa Worlds (Pure Abodes), can be attained only by skilled Buddhist practitioners known as anāgāmis (non-returners).^As a non-Buddhist I don’t believe that anyone was born from a lotus, and Buddha himself is not known to be born from a lotus.

.Rebirths in the arupa-dhatu (formless realms) can be attained only by those who can meditate on the arūpajhānas, the highest object of meditation.^The government’s tubal ligation program only caters to women 45 years and below, but some of those who came are as old as 52.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^My assertions in this paper apply only to the healing techniques of those healers who derive their methods from traditional Yorb conceptions.

.The orthodox Theravada position rejects this; however there are passages in the Samyutta Nikaya of the Pali Canon (the collection of texts on which the Theravada tradition is based), that seem to lend support to the idea that the Buddha taught of an intermediate stage between one life and the next.^This statement seems to be based on old traditions.

.In being controlled by these attitudes, they perpetuate the cycle of conditioned existence and suffering (saṃsāra), and produce the causes and conditions of the next rebirth after death.^During these days I realized how the strategies control people and how they were controlling myself.

^In fact it is quite probable they wouldn't have a cause and the need for these organizations would have disappeared.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^I believe that these elements have been wrongly identified as speciation mechanisms, when they are, in fact, elements causing stasis--and therefore that the entire idea of darwinian evolution is WRONG. .

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

.Each rebirth repeats this process in an involuntary cycle, which Buddhists strive to end by eradicating these causes and conditions, applying the methods laid out by the Buddha and subsequent Buddhists.^As I've pointed out above, the scientific method came about by the same process.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^So I think it is prudent to understand that generally speaking, some of these differences apply over the normal bell curve, and women tend to cluster more densely within the bell while men spread out across both ends of it.

Suffering's causes and solution

The Four Noble Truths

.According to the Pali Tipitaka, the Four Noble Truths were the first teaching of Gautama Buddha after attaining Nirvana.^I did read the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path last year again, but it did not stay with me.

^Faith as in the awakening of faith you seem to have had, as in you have seen for yourself the First Noble Truth of Buddhism, and apparently the Second, which permits some faith that perhaps the Third may also be true.

[31] They are sometimes considered as containing the essence of the Buddha's teachings and are presented in the manner of a medical diagnosis and remedial prescription—a style common at that time:[citation needed]

.This is often expressed as a deluded clinging to a certain sense of existence, to selfhood, or to the things or phenomena that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness.^I do not consider it common sense that labeling things holds us back from understanding the true nature of things.

Craving also has its negative aspect, i.e. one craves that a certain state of affairs not exist.

Suffering ends when craving ends. This is achieved by eliminating delusion, thereby reaching a liberated state of Enlightenment (bodhi);

Reaching this liberated state is achieved by following the path laid out by the Buddha.

.This method is described by early Western scholars, and taught as an introduction to Buddhism by some contemporary Mahayana teachers (e.g., the Dalai Lama).^But the fact that the Dalai Lama regularly meets with Western scientists to discuss the nature of the mind does not mean that Buddhism, or Tibetan Buddhism, or even the Dalai Lama’s own lineage, is uncontaminated by religious dogmatism.

According to other interpretations by Buddhist teachers and scholars, lately recognized by some Western non-Buddhist scholars,[33] the "truths" do not represent mere statements, but are categories or aspects that most worldly phenomena fall into, grouped in two:

Suffering and causes of suffering

Cessation and the paths towards liberation from suffering.

Thus, according to the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism[34] they are

"The noble truth that is suffering"

"The noble truth that is the arising of suffering"

"The noble truth that is the end of suffering"

"The noble truth that is the way leading to the end of suffering"

.The early teaching[35] and the traditional Theravada understanding[36] is that the Four Noble Truths are an advanced teaching for those who are ready for them.^I'm asking you how you can justify your knowledge and position to yourself first, and then to those who are seeking the truth of the matter, since you are saying that Christianity is myth.

.The East Asian Mahayana position is that they are a preliminary teaching for people not yet ready for the higher and more expansive Mahayana teachings.^Are you just asking people to be more polite when they disagree with you?

^The problem with religion is not that it teaches belief in deity, rather that it doesn't sufficiently use that to teach its believers to be better to other people and to move to higher levels of belief.

[37]They are little known in the Far East.[38]. .However, within the Nalanda/Tibetan tradition of Mahayana Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths remain essential to the path.^I did read the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path last year again, but it did not stay with me.

^Faith as in the awakening of faith you seem to have had, as in you have seen for yourself the First Noble Truth of Buddhism, and apparently the Second, which permits some faith that perhaps the Third may also be true.

The Noble Eightfold Path

.The Noble Eightfold Path—the fourth of the Buddha's Noble Truths—is the way to the cessation of suffering (dukkha).^I did read the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path last year again, but it did not stay with me.

.It has eight sections, each starting with the word "samyak" (Sanskrit, meaning "correctly", "properly", or "well", frequently translated into English as "right"), and presented in three groups known as the three higher trainings.^Hegel's philosophy translated very well into evolutionary terms, and the history of European philosophy over the last century or so has indeed been the further refinement of that general outlook.

This is done through the practice of various contemplative and meditative practices, and includes:

vyāyāma (vāyāma): making an effort to improve

smṛti (sati): awareness to see things for what they are with clear consciousness, being aware of the present reality within oneself, without any craving or aversion

samādhi (samādhi): correct meditation or concentration, explained as the first four jhānas

.The practice of the Eightfold Path is understood in two ways, as requiring either simultaneous development (all eight items practiced in parallel), or as a progressive series of stages through which the practitioner moves, the culmination of one leading to the beginning of another.^It’s all one mans preference over another’s.

.In the early sources (the four main Nikayas) the Eightfold Path is not generally taught to laypeople, and it is little-known in the Far East.^I did read the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path last year again, but it did not stay with me.

Middle Way

.An important guiding principle of Buddhist practice is the Middle Way (or Middle Path), which is said to have been discovered by Gautama Buddha prior to his enlightenment.^Why is it important for Buddhists to kill the Buddha?

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

^I do think a fully enlightened being (a Buddha) is said to transcend space/time in certain ways, though it could be that they can see it, not necessarily be in the past/future/etc.

The practice of non-extremism: a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification

The middle ground between certain metaphysicalviews (e.g., that things ultimately either do or do not exist)[41]

An explanation of Nirvana (perfect enlightenment), a state wherein it becomes clear that all dualities apparent in the world are delusory (see Seongcheol)

Another term for emptiness, the ultimate nature of all phenomena (in the Mahayana branch), a lack of inherent existence, which avoids the extremes of permanence and nihilism or inherent existence and nothingness.

The way things are

.Buddhist scholars have produced a remarkable quantity of intellectual theories, philosophies and world view concepts (see, e.g., Abhidharma, Buddhist philosophy and Reality in Buddhism).^In personality, philosophy, and intellectual character, Ch’an without Buddhism is almost identical to Taoism.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

^Yet much of Buddhist philosophy stresses the goal of detaching from this illusory world of maya, getting off the wheel of rebirth, and experiencing some sort of transcendent reality.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

.Some schools of Buddhism discourage doctrinal study, some regard it as essential, but most regard it as having a place, at least for some persons at some stages in Buddhist practice.^Based on the trust I had for Mark personally, I took his advice and made the first moves in my Nichiren Buddhist practice.

.In the earliest Buddhist teachings, shared to some extent by all extant schools, the concept of liberation (Nirvana)—the goal of the Buddhist path—is closely related to the correct understanding of how the mind causes stress.^If the delusion has always been there how do you ever come to a correct understanding of anything?

^"Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

.In awakening to the true nature of clinging, one develops dispassion for the objects of clinging, and is liberated from suffering (dukkha) and the cycle of incessant rebirths (saṃsāra).^It is true that the Muslim rulers were not in favour of erecting new temples, but at times, they gave their consent to the erection of new temples or did not object to the repair of old ones.

.To this end, the Buddha recommended viewing things as characterized by the three marks of existence.^In Tai Chi you learn that the never-ending journey is the important thing, not the episodic steps that mark a few points along the way.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

Impermanence, suffering and non-self

.Anicca (Pāli for "inconstancy", usually translated as impermanence) is one of the three marks of existence.^So would the existence of a higher dimension beyond the three of space and one of time that we're familiar with be natural, or supernatural?

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

^You really missed the mark on this one, as you usually do with your contradictory philosophy and worldview that does not even recognize itself as such.

^I believe you can experience a connectedness---somehow our brains are wired to experience this---just as we are wired to experience other phenomenon like love, compassion....this is after all, part of being human."

.According to the impermanence doctrine, human life embodies this flux in the aging process, the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra), and in any experience of loss.^As I see it, a good life is the expression of an embodied intellect acting and reacting in a structured world and in the process giving and getting love and other fillers of emptiness.

.The doctrine further asserts that because things are impermanent, attachment to them is futile and leads to suffering (dukkha).^Ultimately, this goes back to a form of Buddhism that says attachment to happiness leads to fear and suffering.

.Suffering or dukkha (Pāli दुक्ख; Sanskrit दुःख duḥkha; according to grammatical tradition derived from dus-kha "uneasy", but according to Monier-Williams more likely a Prakritized form of dus-stha "unsteady, disquieted") is a central concept in Buddhism, the word roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress, misery, and frustration.^My assertions in this paper apply only to the healing techniques of those healers who derive their methods from traditional Yorb conceptions.

.Although dukkha is often translated as "suffering", its philosophical meaning is more analogous to "disquietude" as in the condition of being disturbed.^So although atheists may act in many ways more morally than a Christian or adherent of some religion, they have no means of accounting for that morality.

.As such, "suffering" is too narrow a translation with "negative emotional connotations"[42] which can give the impression that the Buddhist view is one of pessimism, but Buddhism seeks to be neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic.^Neither Buddhism nor Jainism had eclipsed, for some magnificent Buddhist and Jaina monuments were erected in the kingdom of the ugas.

.Thus in English-language Buddhist literature "dukkha" is often left untranslated, so as to encompass its full range of meaning.^Divorced women are often left with no financial means to support themselves and often without a place to live.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^LOL! Perhaps you ought to publish a Biblical dictionary so that we can understand the real meaning of the English language according to the Bible.

.Anatta (Pāli) or anātman (Sanskrit) refers to the notion of "not-self". Upon careful examination, one finds that no phenomenon is really "I" or "mine"; these concepts are in fact constructed by the mind.^No one refers to meditation as Buddhist.

In the Nikayas anatta is not meant as a metaphysical assertion, but as an approach for gaining release from suffering. .In fact, the Buddha rejected both of the metaphysical assertions "I have a Self" and "I have no Self" as ontologicalviews that bind one to suffering.^As to self referenced "truths" one must verify them with verifiable facts whereever possible, other self referenced "truths" that impacts it or is impacted by it.

[46].When asked if the self was identical with the body, the Buddha refused to answer.^Quote: If you polled Vancouverites, asking "do you believe in God", you'd get Buddhists who answer "No", but the fact they believe in "Buddha Mind" instead , wouldn't get registered in the poll.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^If you polled Vancouverites, asking "do you believe in God", you'd get Buddhists who answer "No", but the fact they believe in "Buddha Mind" instead , wouldn't get registered in the poll.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

.By analyzing the constantly changing physical and mental constituents (skandhas) of a person or object, the practitioner comes to the conclusion that neither the respective parts nor the person as a whole comprise a self.^It is precisely the false belief that there is a permanent, self-sufficient entity in a person or in objects that cause of to suffer."

Dependent arising

.The doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit; Pali: paticcasamuppāda; Tibetan: rten.cing.'brel.bar.'byung.ba; Chinese: 緣起) is an important part of Buddhist metaphysics.^Bon-Zō-Kan taishō Rishukyō sakuin 梵藏漢對照理趣經索引 (Index to the Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese versions of the Adhyardhasatika ].

.It states that phenomena arise together in a mutually interdependent web of cause and effect.^The ten factors are listed in the Second (Expedient Means) chapter of the sutra, where it states that the true aspect of all phenomena consists of appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, internal cause, internal effect, external cause, external effect, and their consistency from beginning to end.

^In a world dominated by White Light, to recapture the original state of all Intelligence in Creation requires a resurrection from the effects of Creation back into the cause of Creation-back into Black Light, the original state of all the Intelligence in Creation.

It is variously rendered into English as "dependent origination", "conditioned genesis", "dependent co-arising", "interdependent arising", or "contingency".

.The best-known application of the concept of pratītyasamutpāda is the scheme of Twelve Nidānas (from Pāli "nidāna" meaning "cause, foundation, source or origin"), which explain the continuation of the cycle of suffering and rebirth (saṃsāra) in detail.^Explain also what you mean by both natural and supernatural together in the concept of your understanding of origins.

^If he is going to talk about sources of human suffering, I think there are bigger, much bigger, sources of human suffering than not recognizing thoughts are thoughts (whatever that means: NEWS FLASH, THAT IS A TAUTOLOGY).

Vedanā: usually translated feeling: this is the "hedonic tone", i.e. whether something is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral

Tṛṣṇā: literally thirst, but in Buddhism nearly always used to mean craving

Upādāna: clinging or grasping; the word also means fuel, which feeds the continuing cycle of rebirth

Bhava: literally being (existence) or becoming. .(The Theravada explains this as having two meanings: karma, which produces a new existence, and the existence itself.^His godly nature was combined with a new nature at the Incarnation to produce two natures in the One Person, both God and Man, whereas before He was just God.

Jāti: literally birth, but life is understood as starting at conception[52]

Jarāmaraṇa: (old age and death) and also śokaparidevaduḥkhadaurmanasyopāyāsa (sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and misery)

.Sentient beings always suffer throughout saṃsāra, until they free themselves from this suffering by attaining Nirvana.^People seem to always be busy--running from meeting to social engagement until they finally fall thoroughly exhausted into their beds at night.

Emptiness

Mahayana Buddhism received significant theoretical grounding from Nagarjuna (perhaps c. .150–250 CE), arguably the most influential scholar within the Mahayana tradition.^One important scholar of recent times within this tradition is Norbert Rigali (1969, 1975, 1981, 1986).

.Nagarjuna's primary contribution to Buddhist philosophy was the systematic exposition of the concept of śūnyatā, or "emptiness," widely attested in the Prajñāpāramitā sutras which were emergent in his era.^If the Buddhist philosophy of emptiness and awareness applies today in our world, how does it apply in the world of the homo erectus.

.The concept of emptiness brings together other key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anatta and pratītyasamutpāda (dependent origination), to refute the metaphysics of Sarvastivada and Sautrantika (extinct non-Mahayana schools).^Like many others you say you couldn’t bring yourself to torture a baby, but depending on the circs it is quite possible for any of us to do that awful thing.

.For Nagarjuna, it is not merely sentient beings that are empty of ātman; all phenomena (dharmas) are without any svabhava (literally "own-nature" or "self-nature"), and thus without any underlying essence; they are "empty" of being independent; thus the heterodox theories of svabhava circulating at the time were refuted on the basis of the doctrines of early Buddhism.^There is emptiness of self and emptiness of phenomena.

Nagarjuna's school of thought is known as the Mādhyamaka. .Some of the writings attributed to Nagarjuna made explicit references to Mahayana texts, but his philosophy was argued within the parameters set out by the agamas.^This is what came out when I set to writing.

^"Harper" is not responsible for the preserved rights of Catholics set out in the Constitution Act, 1867, nor for the text of the Charter, nor for the historical exemption of churches from taxation.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

He may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the Canon. In the eyes of Nagarjuna the Buddha was not merely a forerunner, but the very founder of the Mādhyamaka system.[53]

.Sarvastivada teachings—which were criticized by Nāgārjuna—were reformulated by scholars such as Vasubandhu and Asanga and were adapted into the Yogacara (Sanskrit: yoga practice) school.^Practical steps include training school teachers, labour leaders and religious scholars about our aims.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

.While the Mādhyamaka school held that asserting the existence or non-existence of any ultimately real thing was inappropriate, some exponents of Yogacara asserted that the mind and only the mind is ultimately real (a doctrine known as cittamatra).^And what did knowing " Ultimate Reality sustaining the whole universe" do for India, not a mystical dam thing!

^Quote: The real value of this correspondence (the only example of its kind to survive the Christian dark age) is not that it is some 'proof' of Jesus's existence (which it manifestly is not) but evidence of the toleration of Roman jurisprudence in the 'golden age' of the Empire.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

.Not all Yogacarins asserted that mind was truly existent; Vasubandhu and Asanga in particular did not.^Your computer did not just accumulate all the information that is stored on it, it was programmed by the information that came from human minds, that are created in the image and likeness of God.

[54].These two schools of thought, in opposition or synthesis, form the basis of subsequent Mahayana metaphysics in the Indo-Tibetan tradition.^The traditional ongn will be competent in at least one of these two divination systems.

^Wikipedia says: Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that beliefs should be formed on the basis of science and logic and not be compromised by emotion, authority, tradition, or any dogma.

.Besides emptiness, Mahayana schools often place emphasis on the notions of perfected spiritual insight (prajñāpāramitā) and Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha, meaning "Buddha embryo" or "Buddha-matrix").^Divorced women are often left with no financial means to support themselves and often without a place to live.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^In Mahayana, the Buddha is seen as the ultimate, highest being, present in all times, in all beings, and in all places, and the Bodhisattvas come to represent the universal ideal of altruistic excellence."

According to the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras, the Buddha revealed the reality of the deathless Buddha-nature, which is said to be inherent in all sentient beings and enables them all eventually to reach complete enlightenment, i.e. Buddhahood. .Buddha-nature is stated in the Mahayana Angulimaliya Sutra and Mahaparinirvana Sutra to not be śūnya, but to be replete with eternal Buddhic virtues.^When I chant the sutra before the Great Mandala inscribed on paper, the paper will instantly bear mind of its innate Buddha-nature, and the Great Mandala will reveal the Pure World of the Original Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni and the Great Bodhisattva Nichiren.

.In the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras the Buddha is portrayed proclaiming that the teaching of the tathāgatagarbha constitutes the "absolutely final culmination" of his Dharma—the highest presentation of truth (other sūtras make similar statements about other teachings) and it has traditionally been regarded as the highest teaching in East Asian Buddhism.^Is it "baiting" to ask questions about statements others make here?

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^The universities you are talking about do not teach evolution as a scientific fact, but as a theory, because operation science cannot find any other explanation for origins.

.However, in modern China all doctrines are regarded as equally valid.^And it is the religion of unity and agreement on the obedience to Allah, and total equality between all people, without regarding their colour, sex, or language."

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

[55].The Mahayana can also on occasion communicate a vision of the Buddha or Dharma which amounts to mysticism and gives expression to a form of mentalist panentheism (see God in Buddhism).^It is through man's sense of thought that the Church of Smyrna receives knowledge of and from God that is processed into forming the intelligence through which it gives life to the other churches.

^As we can see, then, Lee's love for philosophical Taoism and for the most radical aspects of Buddha's teachings was hardly in line with the diluted and simplified forms of Taoism and Buddhism favored by the masses.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

Speculation versus direct experience in Buddhist epistemology

.Decisive in distinguishing Buddhism from other schools of Indian philosophy is the issue of epistemological justification.^That decision made philosophy a life and death issue.

.While all schools of Indian logic recognize various sets of valid justifications for knowledge (pramana) Buddhism recognizes a smaller set than do the others.^The ramaas, on the other hand, are taken from all Indian castes differently from all who wish to give themselves to the study of divine beings.

.All accept perception and inference, for example, but for some schools of Buddhism the received textual tradition is an equally valid epistemological category.^The tradition(s) that fall under the label Buddhism have one primary aspect that is the cornerstone for all the practices--there is a primary goal.

^By that I don't mean they need to have a direct perception of emptiness; I mean that they need to have some understanding that we are all interrelated, that what happens to some beings on the planet has a consequence for the rest.

.According to the scriptures, during his lifetime the Buddha remained silent when asked several metaphysicalquestions.^The sites such as Sihonia, Manaharadeva and Sonagiri, became centres of Jainism during the rule of the Kachchhapaghas because remains of several Jaina temples and images have been discovered.

.These regarded issues such as whether the universe is eternal or non-eternal (or whether it is finite or infinite), the unity or separation of the body and the self, the complete inexistence of a person after Nirvana and death, and others.^For a person, such as you, who thrives on facts, insists on facts and uses facts incessantly to defend his own point of view, he ought to consider them as well, when others use them to argue their points.

.One explanation for this silence is that such questions distract from activity that is practical to realizing enlightenment[57] and bring about the danger of substituting the experience of liberation by conceptual understanding of the doctrine or by religious faith.^Whereas Rinzai Zen believes in sudden enlightenment through contemplating koans (paradoxical riddles, such as, What is the sound of one hand clapping?

^For this reason, the methodology of Buddhsm, if shorn of its religious encumbrances, could be one of our greatest resources as we struggle to develop our scientific understanding of human subjectivity."

[58].Another explanation is that both affirmative and negative positions regarding these questions are based on attachment to and misunderstanding of the aggregates and senses.^Without God you cannot make sense of these questions because without an absolute standard any standard can be justified as right.

[59].Another closely related explanation is that reality is devoid of designations, or empty, and therefore language itself is a priori inadequate.^All this therefore proves that life cannot exist in a vacuum, relating only to itself.

Thus, the Buddha's silence does not indicate misology or disdain for philosophy. .Rather, it indicates that he viewed these questions as not leading to true knowledge.^If you feel these words are true but believe that you just can't get it, I would ask that you to feel your effortless awareness and question the assumption behind the belief that there is something to get.

[60].Dependent arising provides a framework for analysis of reality that is not based on metaphysical assumptions regarding existence or non-existence, but instead on direct cognition of phenomena as they are presented to the mind.^Little gods may be debased or pathetic or ignoble or even evil, but they pose no metaphysical threat to reality.

^Consider "waking dreams": even though they are created through the same dream making mechanism that provides us with nocturnal entertainment, there is a part of the mind that surrounds the experience with the clear announcement that it was "real".

.The Buddha of the earliest Buddhists texts describes Dharma (in the sense of "truth") as "beyond reasoning" or "transcending logic", in the sense that reasoning is a subjectively-introduced aspect of the way humans perceive things, and the conceptual framework which underpins it is a part of the cognitive process, rather than a feature of things as they really are.^By the way, we humans do the same thing.

.Being "beyond reasoning" means in this context penetrating the nature of reasoning from the inside, and removing the causes for experiencing any future stress as a result of it, rather than functioning outside of the system as a whole.^Since some Indians consider his books controversial because it introduces the Western idea, it must refer to the nature of the relationship rather than technicalities of sex.

.Most Buddhists agree that, to a greater or lesser extent, words are inadequate to describe the goal of the Buddhist path, but concerning the usefulness of words in the path itself, schools differ radically.^In the atomic families, isotopes are different forms of the most stable chemical element within a particular group-including the most stable form itself.

.In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the Buddha insists that while pondering upon Dharma is vital, one must then relinquish fixation on words and letters, as these are utterly divorced from liberation and the Buddha-nature.^"But you refuse to heed my words and insist upon thinking that I die.

.Samantabhadra, states there: "The mind of perfect purity ...^There was no need, for we at one time were God Like, using the power that come from having a purity of thought and a oneness of mind that connected to the universe itself.

is beyond thinking and inexplicable..."[63].Also later, the famous Indian Buddhist practitioner and teacher, mahasiddhaTilopa discouraged any intellectual activity in his six words of advice.^Remember, Buddhist teachers are not saying, "Take our word for it."

Professor C. D. Sebastian describes the nature of enlightenment according to one Mahayana text:

".Bodhi is the final goal of a Bodhisattva's career and it is indicated by such words as buddha-jnana (knowledge of Buddha), sarvjnata (omniscience), sarvakarajnata (the quality of knowing things as they are), ...^They pretend to know things that they dont know!

^You want to entice us with titles and political power, but we know that such things only bring burden and trouble.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

and acintyam jnanam (inconceivable knowledge) ... .Bodhi is pure universal and immediate knowledge, which extends over all time, all universes, all beings and elements, conditioned and unconditioned.^In either case, there was always something or something came into being, Evolution from simple to complex over vast periods of time is what produced all that we see today.” .

It is absolute and identical with Reality and thus it is Tathata.Bodhi is immaculate and non-conceptual, and it, being not an outer object, cannot be understood by discursive thought. It has neither beginning, nor middle nor end and it is indivisbile. It is non-dual (advayam)... The only possible way to comprehend it is through samadhi by the yogin"[64]

The early texts, in contrast, contain explicit repudiations of attributing omniscience to the Buddha.[65][66] Furthermore, the non-duality ascribed to the nature of enlightenment in the early texts is not ontological.[67]

.Mahayana often adopts a pragmatic concept of truth:[68] doctrines are "true" in the sense of being spiritually beneficial.^ME "No two religions believe the same thing (including atheism), therefore there has to be a standard that is true to make sense of origins, morals, life, truth.

.In modern Chinese Buddhism, all doctrinal traditions are regarded as equally valid.^The tradition(s) that fall under the label Buddhism have one primary aspect that is the cornerstone for all the practices--there is a primary goal.

Theravada promotes the concept of vibhajjavada (Pāli, literally "Teaching of Analysis") to non-Buddhists. .This doctrine says that insight must come from the aspirant's experience, critical investigation, and reasoning instead of by blind faith.^So if reason is to speak instead what does it say?

Do not accept anything by mere tradition ... .Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures ...^But if you mean that it is a bad book just because it is incompatible with your evolutionist dreams, then this is very good.

^And, conversely, just because the belief is not accepted as reasonable doesn't make it untrue either.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

.Do not accept anything merely because it agrees with your pre-conceived notions ...^But I have trouble accepting your view of my view of Sam because I think it is not based on the words I have written, but your own rather cynical and biased view of what you think my view of Sam is.

But when you know for yourselves—these things are moral, these things are blameless, these things are praised by the wise, these things, when performed and undertaken, conduce to well-being and happiness—then do you live acting accordingly.

Liberation

Nirvana

Nirvana (Sanskrit; Pali: "Nibbana") means "cessation", "extinction" (of craving and ignorance and therefore suffering and the cycle of involuntary rebirths (saṃsāra), "extinguished", "quieted", "calmed"; it is also known as "Awakening" or "Enlightenment" in the West. The term for anybody who has achieved nirvana, including the Buddha, is arahant.

Bodhi (Pāli and Sanskrit, in devanagari: बॊधि) is a term applied to the experience of Awakening of arahants. .Bodhi literally means "awakening", but it is more commonly translated into English as "enlightenment". In Early Buddhism, bodhi carried a meaning synonymous to nirvana, using only some different metaphors to describe the experience, which implies the extinction of raga (greed, craving),[70]dosa (hate, aversion)[71] and moha (delusion).^Different metaphor same meaning.

[72] In the later school of Mahayana Buddhism, the status of nirvana was downgraded in some scriptures, coming to refer only to the extinction of greed and hate, implying that delusion was still present in one who attained nirvana, and that one needed to attain bodhi to eradicate delusion:

An important development in the Mahayana [was] that it came to separate nirvana from bodhi ('awakening' to the truth, Enlightenment), and to put a lower value on the former (Gombrich, 1992d).^"But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals are of any value or at all trustworthy.

But the Mahayana tradition separated them and considered that nirvana referred only to the extinction of craving (passion and hatred), with the resultant escape from the cycle of rebirth. This interpretation ignores the third fire, delusion: the extinction of delusion is of course in the early texts identical with what can be positively expressed as gnosis, Enlightenment.

.Therefore, according to Mahayana Buddhism, the arahant has attained only nirvana, thus still being subject to delusion, while the bodhisattva not only achieves nirvana but full liberation from delusion as well.^You, being a true believer in darwinism, merely continue to assert that they must be delusions and based only upon my ego.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^In Mahayana, the Buddha is seen as the ultimate, highest being, present in all times, in all beings, and in all places, and the Bodhisattvas come to represent the universal ideal of altruistic excellence."

.He thus attains bodhi and becomes a buddha. In Theravada Buddhism, bodhi and nirvana carry the same meaning as in the early texts, that of being freed from greed, hate and delusion.^Mahayana Buddhism split from Theravada in the first few centuries after the Buddhas death.

.The term parinirvana is also encountered in Buddhism, and this generally refers to the complete nirvana attained by the arhat at the moment of death, when the physical body expires.^Soka Gakkai plans to maintain Ikeda as the mentor after his death by referring to the voluminous body of writings and speeches he has left behind).

Buddhas

Theravada

.In Theravada doctrine, a person may awaken from the "sleep of ignorance" by directly realizing the true nature of reality; such people are called arahants and occasionally buddhas. After numerous lifetimes of spiritual striving, they have reached the end of the cycle of rebirth, no longer reincarnating as human, animal, ghost, or other being.^I said that they may end up being necessary, and they might.

The commentaries to the Pali Canon classify these awakened beings into three types:

Sammasambuddha, usually just called Buddha, who discovers the truth by himself and teaches the path to awakening to others

Paccekabuddha, who discovers the truth by himself but lacks the skill to teach others

Savakabuddha, who receive the truth directly or indirectly from a Sammasambuddha

Bodhi and nirvana carry the same meaning, that of being freed from craving, hate, and delusion. In attaining bodhi, the arahant has overcome these obstacles. As a further distinction, the extinction of only hatred and greed (in the sensory context) with some residue of delusion, is called anagami.

Mahayana

.In the Mahayana, the Buddha tends not to be viewed as merely human, but as the earthly projection of a beginningless and endless, omnipresent being (see Dharmakaya) beyond the range and reach of thought.^"In Mahayana, the Buddha is seen as an eternal, immutable, inconceivable, omnipresent being.

.Moreover, in certain Mahayana sutras, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are viewed essentially as One: all three are seen as the eternal Buddha himself.^The three jewels of buddhism is the buddha, dharma, and *sangha*.

^"Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

Bodhi became a higher attainment that eradicates delusion entirely.[73].Thus, the Arahant attains Nirvana but not Bodhi, thus still being subject to delusion, while the Buddha attains Bodhi.^Thus although the Dalai Lama is undoubtedly a Buddha, he is still capable of making a mistake; he is not infallible.

^This element of the scenario has four main characteristics: it is positioned at the center , it is empty , it does not move and thus it is still , and, fourth and finally, being a center it is single.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

.The method of self-exertion or "self-power"—without reliance on an external force or being—stands in contrast to another major form of Buddhism, Pure Land, which is characterised by utmost trust in the salvific "other-power" of Amitabha Buddha.^For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

.Pure Land Buddhism is a very widespread and perhaps the most faith-orientated manifestation of Buddhism and centres upon the conviction that faith in Amitabha Buddha and the chanting of homage to his name will liberate one at death into the "happy land" (安樂) or "pure land" (淨土) of Amitabha Buddha.^Ippen jiten 一遍辞典 [Dictionary of the Jishū 時宗 (Time Pure Land Buddhism)].

^To assert that one "believes" in something that is really only perhaps true, and plausible, but not verified in any empirical way, you are giving props to the idea that it is virtuous to take a leap of faith and to choose to believe with conviction that something is true, that you can not possibly know is true.

.This Buddhic realm is variously construed as a foretaste of Nirvana, or as essentially Nirvana itself.^This Buddhic realm is variously construed as a foretaste of Nirvana, or as essentially Nirvana itself.

.The great vow of Amitabha Buddha to rescue all beings from samsaric suffering is viewed within Pure Land Buddhism as universally efficacious, if only one has faith in the power of that vow or chants his name.^Ippen jiten 一遍辞典 [Dictionary of the Jishū 時宗 (Time Pure Land Buddhism)].

^In Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, where each of the Rings is a powerful symbol of a Chakra, (Chakra in Sanskrit means Ring) one of the energetic centers within a human being, one of the 15 parallel processors of the mind, only one of which is intellectual, he says:- .

.Nearly all Chinese Buddhists accept that the chances of attaining sufficient enlightenment by one's own efforts are very slim, so that Pure Land practice is essential as an "insurance policy" even if one practises something else.^It means Shakyamuni attained enlightenment for himself by his own efforts.

Buddha eras

.Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha was the first to achieve enlightenment in this Buddha era and is therefore credited with the establishment of Buddhism.^Reply: To be pedantic, Buddhism is not really a religion and Gautama Buddha was an atheist, but let that pass.

.A Buddha era is the stretch of history during which people remember and practice the teachings of the earliest known Buddha.^"Men of devout faith during this time I taught people about Nento Buddha and others saying that I would end all sufferings and pass away.

.This Buddha era will end when all the knowledge, evidence and teachings of Gautama Buddha have vanished.^As I've said, the teachings themselves, and the teachers, implore students to look at all possibilities, to not accept ANYTHING on faith alone, not even the words attributed to the Buddha.

^"For the fact is that a person can embrace the Buddha's teaching, and even become a genuine Buddhist contemplative (and one must presume, a buddha) without believing anything on insufficient evidence.

.This belief therefore maintains that many Buddha eras have started and ended throughout the course of human existence.^The utility of my existence on this planet, and I found the answer to many questions that many Human beings ask to themselves daily.

[75][76].The Gautama Buddha, then, is the Buddha of this era, who taught directly or indirectly to all other Buddhas in it (see types of Buddhas).^I still cherish the memory of seeing a picture of three holy men travelling a road together, all laughing with each other.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

^Check with the poet who has been voted in these parts as the greatest of all 20th century poets, which is tae say, Phil Larkin, and see what he has tae say about parents in his ‘This Be the Verse” .

.Pure Land Buddhism holds that it has declined to the point where few, if any, are capable of following the path, so most or all must rely on the power of the Buddha Amitabha.^Ippen jiten 一遍辞典 [Dictionary of the Jishū 時宗 (Time Pure Land Buddhism)].

.Zen and Nichiren traditionally hold that most are incapable of following the "complicated" paths of some other schools and present what they view as a simple practice instead.^Some get mercy, others what they deserve.

Bodhisattvas

Mahayana Buddhism puts great emphasis and, in fact, encourages anybody to follow the path of a Bodhisattva.

Bodhisattva means either "enlightened (bodhi) existence (sattva)" or "enlightenment-being" or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one (satva) for enlightenment (bodhi)". Another translation is "Wisdom-Being".[79]

.The various divisions of Buddhism understand the word Bodhisattva in different ways.^If God made me fallible in such a way that I am not able to understand his words, who's fault is that?"

.Theravada and some Mahayana sources consider a Bodhisattva as someone on the path to Buddhahood, while other Mahayana sources speak of Bodhisattvas renouncing Buddhahood,[80][81] but especially in Mahayana Buddhism, it mainly refers to a being that compassionately refrains from entering nirvana in order to save others.^Since some Indians consider his books controversial because it introduces the Western idea, it must refer to the nature of the relationship rather than technicalities of sex.

^However, those communications merely were being transmitted from one side of the brain to the other and were mistakenly construed as coming from an outside source.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

^"Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

.So the Bodhisattva is a person who already has a considerable degree of enlightenment and seeks to use their wisdom to help other sentient beings to become liberated themselves.^In addition, most Mahayana schools believe in a pantheon of quasi-divine Bodhisattvas (菩薩) that devote themselves to personal excellence, ultimate knowledge, and the salvation of humanity and all other sentient beings (animals, ghosts, demigods, etc.

^It is just one person’s subjective idea opposed to another with the victor being the one who can amass the most votes in favor of his/her side or the one who can voluntarily conscript the most opposition.

.While Theravada regards it as an option, Mahayana encourages everyone to follow a Bodhisattva path and to take the Bodhisattva vows.^A Mahayana bodhisattva (seeker, altruist) takes a vow to postpone his or her entry into nirvana until all other sentient beings can likewise be saved.

.With these vows, one makes the promise to work for the complete enlightenment of all sentient beings.^All of that stuff is still unanswered by science, like photosynthesis used to be, but we continue to work with all faculties of reason and logic and science to solve these unanswered questions.

A famous saying by the 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar-saint Shantideva, which the 14th Dalai Lama often cites as his favourite verse, summarizes the Bodhisattva's intention (Bodhicitta) as follows: "For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide to dispel the misery of the world."

Practice

Devotion

Devotion is an important part of the practice of most Buddhists.[82] Devotional practices include bowing, offerings, pilgrimage, and chanting. .In Pure Land Buddhism, devotion to the Buddha Amitabha is the main practice.^Ippen jiten 一遍辞典 [Dictionary of the Jishū 時宗 (Time Pure Land Buddhism)].

Refuge in the Three Jewels

.Traditionally, the first step in most Buddhist schools requires taking refuge in the Three Jewels (Sanskrit: tri-ratna, Pāli: ti-ratana)[83] as the foundation of one's religious practice.^The first step is to realise that one is proud.

.The practice of taking refuge on behalf of young or even unborn children is mentioned[84] in the Majjhima Nikaya, recognized by most scholars as an early text (cf.^God kills and orders killed women, children and babies (even unborn) in the bible!

^Most women desire two to three children but they give birth to more than three, even five children due to lack of access to contraceptives.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

Infant baptism). .Tibetan Buddhism sometimes adds a fourth refuge, in the lama.^Does all the good HH the Dalai Lama does, become meaningless simply because he has some beliefs that go with his particular faith - Tibetan Buddhism?

.In Mahayana, the person who chooses the bodhisattva path makes a vow or pledge, considered the ultimate expression of compassion.^Pulling out one quote from someone who's not even involved in this conversation and making them the spokes person for everyone who agreed with Sam's thoughts?

^For a person, such as you, who thrives on facts, insists on facts and uses facts incessantly to defend his own point of view, he ought to consider them as well, when others use them to argue their points.

.In Mahayana, too, the Three Jewels are perceived as possessed of an eternal and unchanging essence and as having an irreversible effect: "The Three Jewels have the quality of excellence.^The eternal God has always existed as God in three Persons; being one God in unity and essence and co-equality.

.Just as real jewels never change their faculty and goodness, whether praised or reviled, so are the Three Jewels (Refuges), because they have an eternal and immutable essence.^The deficiencies are real, they will never be filled."

.These Three Jewels bring a fruition that is changeless, for once one has reached Buddhahood, there is no possibility of falling back to suffering."^Once there was no imagination, so imagining could not be imagined.

The Buddha. This is a title for those who have attained Nirvana. See also the Tathāgata and Gautama Buddha. .The Buddha could also be represented as a concept instead of a specific person: the perfect wisdom that understands Dharma and sees reality in its true form.^I see such teachings as a form of wisdom.

.In Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha can be viewed as the supreme Refuge: "Buddha is the Unique Absolute Refuge.^"Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

^Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

.It can also, especially in Mahayana, connote the ultimate and sustaining Reality which is inseparable from the Buddha.^And what did knowing " Ultimate Reality sustaining the whole universe" do for India, not a mystical dam thing!

^In Mahayana, the Buddha is seen as the ultimate, highest being, present in all times, in all beings, and in all places, and the Bodhisattvas come to represent the universal ideal of altruistic excellence."

.Further, from some Mahayana perspectives, the Dharma embodied in the form of a great sutra (Buddhic scripture) can replace the need for a personal teacher and can be a direct and spontaneous gateway into Truth (Dharma).^I don't like the word fundamentalist because of the connotations it conveys with it, but I believe that there are certain truths of Scripture that cannot be denied and a person still be a Christian.

^By that I don't mean they need to have a direct perception of emptiness; I mean that they need to have some understanding that we are all interrelated, that what happens to some beings on the planet has a consequence for the rest.

Dr. Hiroshi Kanno writes of this view of the Lotus Sutra: "it is a Dharma-gate of sudden enlightenment proper to the Great Vehicle; it is a Dharma-gate whereby one awakens spontaneously, without resorting to a teacher".[87]

According to the scriptures, Gautama Buddha presented himself as a model. The Dharma offers a refuge by providing guidelines for the alleviation of suffering and the attainment of Nirvana. .The Sangha is considered to provide a refuge by preserving the authentic teachings of the Buddha and providing further examples that the truth of the Buddha's teachings is attainable.^"If he, for example, claims that his system provides certainty about the truth of the world, well, he cannot claim to have been everywhere and seen everything.

Buddhist ethics

.Śīla (Sanskrit) or sīla (Pāli) is usually translated into English as "virtuous behavior", "morality", "ethics" or "precept". It is an action committed through the body, speech, or mind, and involves an intentional effort.^Good translation of Lotus Sutra from Sanskrit into Chinese.

.It is one of the three practices (sila, samadhi, and panya) and the second pāramitā.^Dogen, one of the founders of zen buddhism in Japan, spent three years at Tien-tng in China, entering whole heartedly into zazen practice.

The four conditions of śīla are chastity, calmness, quiet, and extinguishment.

Śīla is the foundation of Samadhi/Bhāvana (Meditative cultivation) or mind cultivation. .Keeping the precepts promotes not only the peace of mind of the cultivator, which is internal, but also peace in the community, which is external.^Internally and externally, height is a principal attribute, and not only height, but verticality.

^When a Muslim declares that Islam is a religion of peace, he/she is either ignorant of the Koran (Qur'an), or is deceitfully thinking of this "peace", as it extends only to those within the Muslim Community.

True History of Islam, Mohammed and the Koran28 January 2010 0:00 UTCbibleprobe.com [Source type: Original source]

.According to the Law of Karma, keeping the precepts are meritorious and it acts as causes which would bring about peaceful and happy effects.^Someday if your spiritual journey should bring you to Christianity I would like to hear about it.

Śīla refers to overall principles of ethical behavior. .There are several levels of sila, which correspond to "basic morality" (five precepts), "basic morality with asceticism" (eight precepts), "novice monkhood" (ten precepts) and "monkhood" (Vinaya or Patimokkha).^Between Jinachandra and the several rulers of Bikaner such as Mahrj Anpa Siha, Jorvara Siha, Sajana Siha and Gaja Siha, there was a considerable correspondence.

.Lay people generally undertake to live by the five precepts, which are common to all Buddhist schools.^We all know how to live a good life, if a religion helps reinforce that for some people then I guess it's not all bad.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^Generally, a very common charge has been levelled against the uga king Pushyamitra that he was a staunch Brhmaa and caused the death of Buddhist and Jaina monks.

^We simply do not call people “non-astrologers.” All we need are words like “reason” and “evidence” and “common sense” and “bullshit” to put astrologers in their place, and so it could be with religion.

To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness (specifically, drugs and alcohol)

The precepts are not formulated as imperatives, but as training rules that laypeople undertake voluntarily to facilitate practice.[88].In Buddhist thought, the cultivation of dana and ethical conduct will themselves refine consciousness to such a level that rebirth in one of the lower heavens is likely, even if there is no further Buddhist practice.^There isn't one, because there is no such scientific conclusion.

.In the eight precepts, the third precept on sexual misconduct is made more strict, and becomes a precept of celibacy.^It would be more effective to provide young people with the information they need to be safe once they become sexually active.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

The three additional precepts are:

6. To refrain from eating at the wrong time (only eat from sunrise to noon)

7. To refrain from dancing and playing music, wearing jewelry and cosmetics, attending shows and other performances

8. To refrain from using high or luxurious seats and bedding

The complete list of ten precepts may be observed by laypeople for short periods. For the complete list, the seventh precept is partitioned into two, and a tenth added:

6. To refrain from taking food at an unseasonable time, that is after the mid-day meal

7. To refrain from dancing, music, singing and unseemly shows

8. To refrain from the use of garlands, perfumes, ointments, and from things that tend to beautify and adorn (the person)

Monastic life

Vinaya is the specific moral code for monks and nuns. It includes the Patimokkha, a set of 227 rules for monks in the Theravadin recension. The precise content of the vinayapitaka (scriptures on Vinaya) differ slightly according to different schools, and different schools or subschools set different standards for the degree of adherence to Vinaya. .Novice-monks use the ten precepts, which are the basic precepts for monastics.^So my evolution has been in the direction of Bruce Lee's Taoist Jeet Kune Do, whose basic precepts are "using no way as way" and "having no limitation as limitation."

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

Regarding the monastic rules, the Buddha constantly reminds his hearers that it is the spirit that counts. .On the other hand, the rules themselves are designed to assure a satisfying life, and provide a perfect springboard for the higher attainments.^Sure, it's about all of those things and perhaps in a perfect world we wouldn't need marriage to provide security and stability to children and each other.

^How the planet reaches the balance point of human carrying capacity or even an optimum level, while providing for all other life is the issue.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

.Monastics are instructed by the Buddha to live as "islands unto themselves". In this sense, living life as the vinaya prescribes it is, as one scholar puts it: "more than merely a means to an end: it is very nearly the end in itself."^More than one version?

.In Eastern Buddhism, there is also a distinctive Vinaya and ethics contained within the Mahayana Brahmajala Sutra (not to be confused with the Pali text of that name) for Bodhisattvas, where, for example, the eating of meat is frowned upon and vegetarianism is actively encouraged (see vegetarianism in Buddhism).^There are two main streams within Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana.

Meditation

.Buddhist meditation is fundamentally concerned with two themes: transforming the mind and using it to explore itself and other phenomena.^But I made up my mind that in September, when I returned to Baltimore to do my senior year at Johns Hopkins, I was going to find a Zen Buddhist center and learn to meditate.

[92].According to Theravada Buddhism the Buddha taught two types of meditation, samatha meditation (Sanskrit: śamatha) and vipassanā meditation (Sanskrit: vipaśyanā).^About two-thirds of scientists believe in God, according to a new survey that uncovered stark differences based on the type of research they do.

.In Chinese Buddhism, these exist (translated chih kuan), but Chan (Zen) meditation is more popular.^Then I started reading, and I found out that Bodhidharma ( Daruma ) is the founder not only of Kung Fu but also of Chan (Zen) Buddhism.

^Therefore, trust the translations that are more harsh, more illogical, more bloodthirsty and more scientifically erroneous; because these are the more honest translations.

True History of Islam, Mohammed and the Koran28 January 2010 0:00 UTCbibleprobe.com [Source type: Original source]

[93].According to Peter Harvey, whenever Buddhism has been healthy, not only monks, nuns, and married lamas, but also more committed lay people have practiced meditation.^How is that any more of a commitment than people who don't get married?

^YOU: "But you are missing the point that cheating is complex and there are probably things married people can do to decrease the chances of it by communicating, and looking at conflicts in their marriage more honestly" .

[94].According to Routledge's Encyclopedia of Buddhism, in contrast, throughout most of Buddhist history before modern times, serious meditation by lay people has been unusual.^If it is cultural then “culture” has predominated throughout most of history.

[95].The evidence of the early texts suggests that at the time of the Buddha, many male and female lay practitioners did practice meditation, some even to the point of proficiency in all eight jhānas (see the next section regarding these).^He was not even recommending meditation to anyone else at all.

Samādhi (meditative cultivation): samatha meditation

.In the language of the Noble Eightfold Path, samyaksamādhi is "right concentration". The primary means of cultivating samādhi is meditation.^I did read the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path last year again, but it did not stay with me.

.Upon development of samādhi, one's mind becomes purified of defilement, calm, tranquil, and luminous.^Jesus came a fulfilled the culmination of the mission by becoming one with the Pure and Perfect Mind of God, and one with the Creation of the Universe in the sight of men.

.Once the meditator achieves a strong and powerful concentration (jhāna, Sanskrit ध्यान dhyāna), his mind is ready to penetrate and gain insight (vipassanā) into the ultimate nature of reality, eventually obtaining release from all suffering.^All education does this by simplifying the messy truth about reality into a nice just-so story.

The cultivation of mindfulness is essential to mental concentration, which is needed to achieve insight.

.Samatha Meditation starts from being mindful of an object or idea, which is expanded to one's body, mind and entire surroundings, leading to a state of total concentration and tranquility (jhāna) There are many variations in the style of meditation, from sitting cross-legged or kneeling to chanting or walking.^There are many forms of Buddhist meditation.

The most common method of meditation is to concentrate on one's breath (anapanasati), because this practice can lead to both samatha and vipassana'.

.In Buddhist practice, it is said that while samatha meditation can calm the mind, only vipassanā meditation can reveal how the mind was disturbed to start with, which is what leads to knowledge (jñāna; Pāli ñāṇa) and understanding (prajñā Pāli paññā), and thus can lead to nirvāṇa (Pāli nibbāna).^I can practice Buddhist meditation, and not be a Buddhist.

When one is in jhana, all defilements are suppressed temporarily. Only understanding (prajñā or vipassana) eradicates the defilements completely. Jhanas are also states which Arahants abide in order to rest.

In Theravāda

.In Theravāda Buddhism, the cause of human existence and suffering is identified as craving, which carries with it the various defilements.^Buddhism believes that human suffering is caused by attachments.

These various defilements are traditionally summed up as greed, hatred and delusion. .These are believed to be deeply rooted afflictions of the mind that create suffering and stress.^"But for something as senseless as an all powerful God who needs his creation to worship him, and praise him, and believe in him without evidence, and fear him, and suffer for not believing in him without evidence?

^You admit: "...I describe myself as an agnostic because I concede that there might be a divinity at the root of creation, but I do not profess to be a committed believer."

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^But for something as senseless as an all powerful God who needs his creation to worship him, and praise him, and believe in him without evidence, and fear him, and suffer for not believing in him without evidence?

.In order to be free from suffering and stress, these defilements need to be permanently uprooted through internal investigation, analyzing, experiencing, and understanding of the true nature of those defilements by using jhāna, a technique which is part of the Noble Eightfold Path.^Is it really that free, or is it governed by numerous factors that influence it, such as your sinful nature (Ephesians 2:1-3 with Romans 8:5-8 if you choose to look at these Scriptures)?

Prajñā is the wisdom that is able to extinguish afflictions and bring about bodhi. .It is spoken of as the principal means of attaining nirvāṇa, through its revelation of the true nature of all things as dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), anicca (impermanence) and anatta (not-self).^Me: "And if it is natural for men to be promiscuous then by all means be promiscuous.

Prajñā is also listed as the sixth of the six pāramitās of the Mahayana.

.Initially, prajñā is attained at a conceptual level by means of listening to sermons (dharma talks), reading, studying, and sometimes reciting Buddhist texts and engaging in discourse.^Thumbing through one of my favorite spiritual books yesterday, I read a quotation from Tai-hui in The Zen Koan as a Means of Attaining Enlightenment : .

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

^Anyone who reads these boards and listens to moderates talk about atheists can not possibly think that our message is clear.

.Once the conceptual understanding is attained, it is applied to daily life so that each Buddhist can verify the truth of the Buddha's teaching at a practical level.^The Fourth Noble Truth is the Buddhist way of life, the practical steps to attain nirvana.

History of Buddhism19 January 2010 8:49 UTCwww.truthnet.org [Source type: Original source]

.Notably, one could in theory attain Nirvana at any point of practice, whether deep in meditation, listening to a sermon, conducting the business of one's daily life, or any other activity.^It is practiced in the course of daily life.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

^Several Jaina monks like the Jaina monks of Ellor passed their time in isolation from busy towns and were devoted to a life of meditation and contemplation.

Zen

.Zen Buddhism (禅), pronounced chán in Chinese, seon in Korean or zen in Japanese (derived from the Sanskrit term dhyāna, meaning "meditation") is a form of Buddhism that became popular in China, Korea and Japan and that lays special emphasis on meditation.^In fact, I have experimented with various forms of "meditation" myself along with studying the various religions that incorporate some form of it into their rituals, such as Buddhism.

[97].Zen places less emphasis on scriptures than some other forms of Buddhism and prefers to focus on direct spiritual breakthroughs to truth.^Timmy, you were the one who labeled it inconsistent, and you were the one who is unable to give a standard that is anything other than you own personal feelings and preferences.

Zen Buddhism is divided into two main schools: Rinzai (臨済宗) and Soto (曹洞宗), the former greatly favouring the use in meditation on the koan (公案, a meditative riddle or puzzle) as a device for spiritual break-through, and the latter (while certainly employing koans) focusing more on shikantaza or "just sitting".[98]

.Zen Buddhist teaching is often full of paradox, in order to loosen the grip of the ego and to facilitate the penetration into the realm of the True Self or Formless Self, which is equated with the Buddha himself.^YOU: "Here you are asserting without doubt that your Buddhist philosophy of "no permanent self" is true.

[99].According to Zen master, Kosho Uchiyama, when thoughts and fixation on the little 'I' are transcended, an Awakening to a universal, non-dual Self occurs: ' When we let go of thoughts and wake up to the reality of life that is working beyond them, we discover the Self that is living universal non-dual life (before the separation into two) that pervades all living creatures and all existence.'^Where has non-life ever given birth to the living.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

[100]. .Thinking and thought must therefore not be allowed to confine and bind one.^He seems open to believing the idea that one can transcend discursive thought and conceptual thinking, but he wants people to explain it with concepts.

Vajrayana and Tantra

.Though based upon Mahayana, Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhism is one of the schools that practice Vajrayāna or "Diamond Vehicle" (also referred to as Mantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Tantric Buddhism, or esoteric Buddhism).^Though he professed Buddhism he preached ' Dhamma ' based on ehthics but not religious dogmas.

.It accepts all the basic concepts of Mahāyāna, but also includes a vast array of spiritual and physical techniques designed to enhance Buddhist practice.^So maybe I shouldn't call myself a Buddhist (as the fourth "seal," explained in my previous post, is that you must accept that nirvana is beyond concepts).

[102].One component of the Vajrayāna is harnessing psycho-physical energy through ritual, visualization, physical exercises, and meditation as a means of developing the mind.^One day during meditation, Tendo Nyojo shouted at a sleeping monk, "When you study under a Master, you must drop body and mind!"

^One first examines the structure of one's mind and finds the root of all problems in the development of an ego-identity, which must be abolished and eradicated completely.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

.Using these techniques, it is claimed that a practitioner can achieve Buddhahood in one lifetime, or even as little as three years.^One may claim that even though the odds against something happening are a billion to one, that still doesn't mean that it can never happen.

.In the Tibetan tradition, these practices can include sexual yoga, though only for some very advanced practitioners.^Gad, you make it sound as though Peters challenge: "if you can not answer these unanswerable questions, then how do you know that my answer is wrong", has some merit.

^The words sexual immorality is termed fornications in some Bibles and is different from adultery in that adultery is something practiced while married whereas fornication is applied to those who are single.

History

Philosophical roots

.Historically, the roots of Buddhism lie in the religious thought of Ancient India during the second half of the first millennium BC.[104] That was a period of social and religious turmoil, as there was significant discontent with the sacrifices and rituals of Vedic Brahmanism.^Historians today have a pretty good knowledge of the time where the Patriarchs traditionally are placed - the first half of the second millennium BC. But they have found almost nothing there.

[105].It was challenged by numerous new ascetic religious and philosophical groups and teachings that broke with the Brahmanic tradition and rejected the authority of the Vedas and the Brahmans.^"The philosophical teachings of the Mahāyāna are adumbrated in a new body of literature known as the Prajñā-pāramitā Sūtras or ‘Perfection of Insight’ texts.

^They "plan to put Harper on his heels" by challenging church tax exemptions which allow religious groups to save 15 billion per year in taxes.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

[106][107].These groups, whose members were known as shramanas, were a continuation of a non-Vedic strand of Indian thought distinct from Indo-Aryan Brahmanism.^He is asking, should atheists, as a group speaking as one, take a side on the continued experimentation of these things.

[108][109].Scholars have reasons to believe that ideas such as samsara, karma (in the sense of the influence of morality on rebirth), and moksha originated in the shramanas, and were later adopted by Brahmin orthodoxy.^He was created different from the animals, in the image and likeness of God, able to reason and understand abstract ideas and concepts that include morality."

[110][111][112][113][114][115].At the same time, they were influenced by, and in some respects continued, earlier philosophical thought within the Vedic tradition as reflected e.g.^They stay for some time.

.Many of these new movements shared the same conceptual vocabulary - atman (“Self"), buddha ("awakened one”), dhamma (“rule” or “law”), karma (“action”), nirvana (“extinguishing”), samsara (“eternal recurrence”) and yoga (“spiritual practice”).^If he chooses to break those laws, just like in any other society, there are consequences (And without Christ in the long run, eternal ones)."

[105].The shramanas rejected the Veda, and the authority of the brahmans, who claimed to be in possession of revealed truths not knowable by any ordinary human means; moreover, they declared that the entire Brahmanical system was fraudulent: a conspiracy of the brahmans to enrich themselves by charging exorbitant fees for the performance of bogus rites and the giving of futile advice.^Although they CLAIMED to be WISE, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images...They exchanged the TRUTH of God for a LIE..."

^Each human being must set out on their own journey inward towards God or Universal Truth (and they do so only if they feel drawn to it themselves and not because they are forced to do it by someone else) and it is God Himself who guides and leads the willing.

[118] A particular criticism of the Buddha's was Vedic animal sacrifice.[119] Their leaders, including Buddha, were often known as śramaṇas.[120] The Buddha declared that priests reciting the Vedas were like blind leading the blind.[121].According to him, those priests who had memorized the Vedas really knew nothing.^Those who follow him are merciful to one another, but ruthless to unbelievers" Surah 48:29.

True History of Islam, Mohammed and the Koran28 January 2010 0:00 UTCbibleprobe.com [Source type: Original source]

[122].He also mocked the Vedic "hymn of the cosmic man".[123] He declared that the primary goal of Upanishadic thought, the Atman, was in fact non-existent,[124], and, having explained that Brahminical attempts to achieve liberation at death were futile, proposed his new idea of liberation in life.^The hearts and minds of the conservative bishops were swayed by the testimonials from married couples who explained the realities of attempting a healthy sex life without the aid of contraception.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^In fact, I think art ---in its non-linguistic form--can be a symbolic representation of people's transcient experiences ( thought I would just throw that one in as a curve ball.

[125][126].At the same time, the traditional Brahminical religion itself gradually underwent profound changes, transforming it into what is recognized as early Hinduism.^Those people who go out and get remarried fall into the same divorce statistics as the one's doing it for the first time.

Early Buddhist schools

.According to the scriptures, soon after the parinirvāṇa (from Sanskrit: "highest extinguishment") of Gautama Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held.^First, there is only one true and living God according to Scripture.

^With fresh emphasis, this peerless and beloved teacher links Tibetan Buddhism to its deep roots in the ancient scholastic tradition of Nalanda University and to the profound analytical teachings of the seminal Indian master Nagarjuna.

.The primary purpose of the assembly was to collectively recite the teachings to ensure that no errors occurred in oral transmission.^Atheism teaches that humans are just a biologically advanced animal, that there are no absolute standards for ethics, that meaning is what you create meaning to be and that ultimately life has no purpose.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

.In the first council, Ānanda, a cousin of the Buddha and his personal attendant, was called upon to recite the discourses (sūtras, Pāli suttas) of the Buddha, and, according to some sources, the abhidhamma.^According to some Heracles was the only person to steal the apples, other than Perseus , although Athena later returned the apples to their rightful place in the garden.

Upāli, another disciple, recited the monastic rules (vinaya). .Scholars regard the traditional accounts of the council as greatly exaggerated if not entirely fictitious.^Scholars regard the traditional accounts of the council as greatly exaggerated if not entirely fictitious.

.According to most scholars, at some period after the Second Council the Sangha began to break into separate factions.^Such was the dominance of Jainism that some rulers and most of the people began to observe the doctrine of Ahis.

[134] The various accounts differ as to when the actual schisms occurred. According to the Dipavamsa of the Pāli tradition, they started immediately after the Second Council, the Puggalavada tradition places it in 137 AN, the Sarvastivada tradition of Vasumitra says it was in the time of Asoka and the Mahasanghika tradition places it much later, nearly 100 BCE.

The root schism was between the Sthaviras and the Mahāsāṅghikas. .The fortunate survival of accounts from both sides of the dispute reveals disparate traditions.^The fortunate survival of accounts from both sides of the dispute reveals disparate traditions.

^The following groups are religions , but have not been included in this list of major religions primarily for one or more of the following reasons: They are not a distinct, independent religion, but a branch of a broader religion/category.

.The Dipavamsa of the Theravāda says that the losing party in the Second Council dispute broke away in protest and formed the Mahasanghika.^The Dipavamsa of the Theravāda says that the losing party in the Second Council dispute broke away in protest and formed the Mahasanghika.

^The various accounts differ as to when the actual schisms occurred: according to the Dipavamsa of the Pali tradition, they started immediately after the Second Council; the Puggalavada tradition places it in 137 AN; the Sarvastivada tradition of Vasumitra says it was in the time of Asoka; and the Mahasanghika tradition places it much later, nearly 100 BCE. .

^Main article: The Second Buddhist Council The second Buddhist council was held at Vaisali following a dispute that had arisen in the Sangha over the relaxation by some monks of various points of discipline.

This contradicts the Mahasanghikas' own vinaya, which shows them as on the same, winning side. .The Mahāsāṅghikas argued that the Sthaviras were trying to expand the vinaya and may also have challenged what they perceived to be excessive claims or inhumanly high criteria for arhatship.^I never claim to know it all, but I try to be open to learning and understanding other points of view, no matter how weird and wacky they may sound at first.

The Sthaviras gave rise to several schools, one of which was the Theravāda school. .Originally, these schisms were caused by disputes over vinaya, and monks following different schools of thought seem to have lived happily together in the same monasteries, but eventually, by about 100 CE if not earlier, schisms were being caused by doctrinal disagreements too.^I found this interesting, I never thought about I but I always tilt right, tilting left seems unnatural......

^My concern is that our disagreements are a matter of degree and yet they are very important differences (and I am concerned because you seem not to be able to see those differences, acknowledge those differences and understand those differences).

Following (or leading up to) the schisms, each Saṅgha started to accumulate an Abhidharma, a detailed scholastic reworking of doctrinal material appearing in the Suttas, according to schematic classifications. .These Abhidharma texts do not contain systematic philosophical treatises, but summaries or numerical lists.^These methods that I have tried before simply don’t provide for the systematic identification of Energy Blockages or contain the Advanced Techniques for the removal of the energy blockages to enlightenment that Energy Enhancement does.

.Scholars generally date these texts to around the 3rd century BCE, 100 to 200 years after the death of the Buddha.^Mahayana Buddhism split from Theravada in the first few centuries after the Buddhas death.

^In the eighth and ninth centuries, more than a century after the death of Muhammad, Islamic commentators added diacritical marks to clear up the ambiguities of the text.

True History of Islam, Mohammed and the Koran28 January 2010 0:00 UTCbibleprobe.com [Source type: Original source]

^She describes the teachings of the Xisheng jing ("Scripture of Western Ascension"), a text that dates to about the fifth century.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

.Therefore the seven Abhidharma works are generally claimed not to represent the words of the Buddha himself, but those of disciples and great scholars.^What would happen if all of those attending church on Sunday instead volunteered to help the less fortunate, or worked on something to generate wealth?

[137] Every school had its own version of the Adhidharma, with different theories and different texts. .The different Adhidharmas of the various schools did not agree with each other.^But other schools of Nichiren Buddhism do not agree that the High Sanctuary is Taisekiji .

Early Mahayana Buddhism

The period of Early Mahayana Buddhism concerns the origins of Mahayana and the contents of early Mahayana Sutras.[139] The development of the various Early Buddhist Schools and the arising of Mahayana were not always consecutive. .For example, the early schools continued to exist alongside Mahayana.^For example, the early schools continued to exist alongside Mahayana.

The commonly expressed misconception that Mahayana started as a lay-inspired movement is based on a selective reading of a very tiny sample of extant Mahayana Sutra literature. .Currently scholars have moved away from this limited corpus, and have started to examine early Mahayana literature, which is very ascetic and expounds the ideal of the monks' life in the forest.^"Anyway, there’s no denying this one is a life-affirming poem by a poet who early last century had to be very courageous to proclaim his atheism like this:" .

.A scholarly consensus about the origin of the Mahayana has not yet been reached, but it has been suggested that when Mahayana became popular, in the 5th century CE, it had become something it had previously objected to: a landed monastic institution with a lay orientation.^The history of Western philosophy reached a level in the nineteenth century that finally exceeded its origins.

^In fact my consciousness will usually be involved in something else, in a conversation with you if you happen to be my passenger, or in thinking about the origin of consciousness perhaps.

Church of the Churchless: Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTChinessight.blogs.com [Source type: Original source]

.Prior to this, the movement may well have been either a marginalized ascetic group of monks living in the forest, or a group of conservatives embedded in mainstream, socially engaged early Buddhist monasteries.^It may be either of the Jainas or the Buddhists.

^While the term may have been used in certain circumstances, for example, among the people working in the movement as a way to describe themselves, I question that it was used in the mainstream culture and media as a way of describing the movement.

Most scholars conclude that Mahayana remained a marginal movement until the 5th century AD.[140]

.The earliest Mahayana Sutras are called the Proto-Mahayana Sutras such as the Ajitasena Sutra which contains a mixture of Mahayana and pre-Mahayana ideas.^The earliest of such inscriptions is that of a Sailodbhava grant, belonging to the seventh century A.D. This inscription 223 mentions one Jaina Muni called Prabhuddhachandra and his Guru Arahadchrya Nsichandra.

.It occurs in a world where monasticism is the norm, which is typical of the Pali Suttas; there is none of the usual antagonism towards the followers of the Early Buddhist Schools or the notion of Arahantship, which is typical of many Mahayana Sutras such as the White Lotus, or Vimalakirti Nirdesha.^There are many such prophesies in the Bible Gad."

.However, the sutra also has an Arahant seeing all the Buddha fields, it is said that reciting the name of the sutra will save beings from suffering and the hell realms, and a meditative practice is described which allows the practitioner to see with the eyes of a Buddha, and to receive teachings from them that are very much typical of Mahayana Sutras.^ANDY: "Buddha said life is suffering.

Some early Mahayana Sutras are Ratnagunasamcayagatha and the Astasaharika.

.Some scholars contend that the Mahayana sutras were mainly composed in the south[141] of India, and that later the activity of writing additional scriptures was continued in the east[142] and north[143] of India.^His conquest of some regions of the South India is also attested by the inscriptions of Aoka found at some sites.

Late Mahayana Buddhism

.During the period of Late Mahayana Buddhism, four major types of thought developed: Madhyamaka, Yogacara, Tathagatagarbha, and Buddhist Logic as the last and most recent.^Bede worked with four main sources or categories of material, which also mark successive stages in the development of his thought.

[144].In India, the two main philosophical schools of the Mahayana were the Madhyamaka and the later Yogacara.^And across the developing world, girls who complete primary school tend to marry four years later and have two fewer children.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

[145] According to Dan Lusthaus, Madhyamaka and Yogacara have a great deal in common, and the commonality stems from early Buddhism.[146].There were no great Indian teachers associated with tathagatagarbha thought.^There was no need, for we at one time were God Like, using the power that come from having a purity of thought and a oneness of mind that connected to the universe itself.

.The support of Aśoka and his descendants led to the construction of more stūpas (Buddhist religious memorials) and to efforts to spread Buddhism throughout the enlarged Maurya empire and even into neighboring lands—particularly to the Iranian-speaking regions of Afghanistan and Central Asia, beyond the Mauryas' northwest border, and to the island of Sri Lanka south of India.^To save lives, the missionaries cleverly decided to spread their religious message slowly throughout the populations by allowing them to continue to celebrate pagan feasts, but to do so in a Christian manner.

^Certainly, with the Christian "cult" growing so rapidly throughout the regions and even into nearby countries in those early days, anyone having evidence to contradict the Scriptural account would certainly have likely been compelled to present it publicly.

True History of Islam, Mohammed and the Koran28 January 2010 0:00 UTCbibleprobe.com [Source type: Original source]

^Like Nichiren Buddhism, Pure Land acknowledges that people in this age have diminished capacity, and are more benighted by greed, anger and stupidity, and so, people today need a simpler religious practice.

.These two missions, in opposite directions, would ultimately lead, in the first case to the spread of Buddhism into China, and in the second case, to the emergence of Theravāda Buddhism and its spread from Sri Lanka to the coastal lands of Southeast Asia.^I think the third option is the only one open to us; the first will lead to disaster, the second will not stand long in the courts.

.According to the edicts of Aśoka, emissaries were sent to various countries west of India in order to spread Buddhism (Dharma), particularly in eastern provinces of the neighboring Seleucid Empire, and even farther to Hellenistic kingdoms of the Mediterranean.^Thus the Mahayana practitioner continues to be reborn onto earth or earth like planets in order to save his fellow sentient beings by spreading Buddhism.

^"Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.

.This led, a century later, to the emergence of Greek-speaking Buddhist monarchs in the Indo-Greek Kingdom, and to the development of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhāra.^The Yavana ruler whose name is sometimes doubtfully read as Dimitra or Dimata (Demetrius), was probably a later Indo-Greek ruler of the eastern Punjab.

.During this period Buddhism was exposed to a variety of influences, from Persian and Greek civilization, and from changing trends in non-Buddhist Indian religions—themselves influenced by Buddhism.^Then we will compare Nichiren Buddhism with the major non Buddhist religions.

.It is a matter of disagreement among scholars whether or not these emissaries were accompanied by Buddhist missionaries.^Among these sages, one Klnos who accompanied Alexander probably to instruct him in the matters of religion.

.The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BC, to Sri Lanka and Thailand and Burma and later also Indonesia.^"Mahayanists distinguish themselves from the more conservative Theravada Buddhists of Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

The Dharmagupta school spread (also in 3rd century BC) north to Kashmir, Gandhara and Bactria (Afghanistan). .In the 2nd century AD, Mahayana Sutras spread from that general area to China, and then to Korea and Japan, and were translated into Chinese.^Good translation of Lotus Sutra from Sanskrit into Chinese.

.During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia.^Several Jaina temples were built and numerous images installed in them during the Sayyid period and the Lodi period at several sites in Northern India.

Buddhism today

By the late Middle Ages, .Buddhism had become virtually extinct in India, and although it continued to exist in surrounding countries, its influence was no longer expanding.^Lesson of the story : In India, you could kill innocent Muslim men, rape their women, burn their children and still could become the country's prime minister.

^The entrance of Buddhism, moreover, into the country in our first century, was very injurious to Toism, which still exists, but is only the shadow of its former self.

The Texts of Taoism14 January 2010 9:19 UTCterebess.hu [Source type: Original source]

^Of course, I’m not saying that racism is no longer a problem in this country, but anyone who thinks that the problem is as bad as it ever was has simply forgotten, or has never learned, how bad, in fact, it was.

It is now again gaining strength in India and elsewhere.[150][151].Estimates of the number of Buddhist followers by scholars range from 230 million to 500 million, with most around 350 million.^Consider, for instance, the following claims of Bolaji Idowu, one of the most cited scholars on Yorb theology: .

.Most scholars classify similar numbers of people under a category they call "Chinese folk" or "traditional" religion, an amalgam of various traditions that includes Buddhism.^It is the traditional religion of the Yoruba peoples.

.Formal membership varies between communities, but basic lay adherence is often defined in terms of a traditional formula in which the practitioner takes refuge in The Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha), and the Sangha (the Buddhist community).^The three jewels of buddhism is the buddha, dharma, and *sangha*.

^First to your comments, "If the word "atheist" is going to carry the banner for all those who want the world to wake up from this long religious nightmare, then it needs to attract the most number of supporters as possible.

[160][161][162] In many current and former Communist governments in Asia, government policies may discourage adherents from reporting their religious identity, or may encourage official counts to underestimate religious adherence.

.According to one analysis, Buddhism is the fourth-largest religion in the world behind Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.^Oriental view of the universe, which is in fact, the view of the ‘perennial philosophy’, the cosmic vision which is common to all religious tradition from the most primitive tribal religions to the great world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity.

^I'm not interested in seeing the whole world abandon religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism--only that part of the world where religions have substantial power, and only to the point where the balance of power shifts.

East Asian forms of Mahayana Buddhism that use scriptures in Chinese are dominant in most of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam as well as within Chinese and Japanese communities within Indochina, Southeast Asia and the West.

^Furthermore, Memphis was already well populated with fair skinned East-Indian women that had entered the region form Ethiopia as part of the original Hebrew family.

^"Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

^Since Trottier started campaigning, the number of campus humanist groups has shot up from one to at least a dozen this semester.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^Humanity is fortunate to have at least one group of individuals who treat the universe, and our role in it, for what it really is.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

.At the present time, the teachings of all three branches of Buddhism have spread throughout the world, and Buddhist texts are increasingly translated into local languages.^The Manichaean texts were translated into various languages by a group of Sogdians.

.While, in the West, Buddhism is often seen as exotic and progressive, in the East, Buddhism is regarded as familiar and traditional.^We have finished comparing Nichiren Buddhism with the other forms of Buddhism familiar in the west.

In the West, Buddhism is recognized as one of the growing spiritual influences. .Modern influences increasingly lead to new forms of Buddhism that significantly depart from traditional beliefs and practices.^Ultimately, this goes back to a form of Buddhism that says attachment to happiness leads to fear and suffering.

[166].This classification is also used by some scholars[167] and is the one ordinarily used in the English language.^English language by many Europeans since the latter part of the 19th Century A.D. The easiest one to read is called...

[168].An alternative scheme used by some scholars[169] divides Buddhism into the following three traditions or geographical or cultural areas: Theravada, East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism.^Precepts : Specific rules of conduct; used in Theravada, but not in Nichiren Buddhism.

^Hence, unless otherwise stated, I will use traditional medicine to refer to holistic medicine, and I will use alternative (or orthodox) medicine to refer to medicine as currently practiced by the Western doctor in a standard hospital or clinic.

.Hinayana (literally "lesser vehicle") is used by Mahayana followers to name the family of early philosophical schools and traditions from which contemporary Theravada emerged, but as this term is rooted in the Mahayana viewpoint and can be considered derogatory, a variety of other terms are increasingly used instead, including Śrāvakayāna, Nikaya Buddhism, early Buddhist schools, sectarian Buddhism, conservative Buddhism, mainstream Buddhism and non-Mahayana Buddhism.^It is definately not a non-useful term.

.Each tradition, however, does have its own core concepts, and some comparisons can be drawn between them.^To be fair, unlike you or Peter, Timmy does make some good points sometimes from of his own ideas.

.While there is much agreement on general principles, there is disagreement over which texts are more authoritative.^While there is much agreement on general principles, there is disagreement over which texts are more authoritative.

Both accept that members of the laity and of the sangha can pursue the path toward enlightenment (bodhi).

Both consider buddhahood to be the highest attainment; however Theravadins consider the nirvana (nibbana to the Theravadins) attained by arahants as identical to that attained by the Buddha himself, as there is only one type of nirvana.

^I did read the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path last year again, but it did not stay with me.

Theravada school

Theravāda ("Doctrine of the Elders", or "Ancient Doctrine") is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. .It is relatively conservative, and generally closest to early Buddhism.^I was into Zen Buddhism (influenced by the teachings of Alan Watt's and the like) in my late teens and early twenties, but with age my memory is vague on his teachings and the teachings on Buddhism in general.

[174].This school is derived from the Vibhajjavāda grouping which emerged amongst the older Sthavira group at the time of the Third Buddhist Council (c.^Buddhist monks spend much of their time meditating in groups.

250 BCE). .This school gradually declined on the Indian subcontinent, but its branch in Sri Lanka and South East Asia continues to survive.^This school gradually declined on the Indian subcontinent, but its branch in Sri Lanka and South East Asia continues to survive.

^Piyadassi Thera, The Seven Factors of Enlightenment [4] This school gradually declined on the Indian subcontinent, but its branch in Sri Lanka and South East Asia continues to survive; this branch of the school is now known as Theravada.

^Theravada Lit., the School of the Elders; one of the two main forms of Buddhism known in the world today; practiced chiefly in south-east Asia; has the Pali Canon for textual foundation; this tradition advocates the Arahantship.

The Theravada school bases its practice and doctrine exclusively on the Pāli Canon and its commentaries. .After being orally transmitted for a few centuries, its scriptures, the Pali Canon, were finally committed to writing in the last century BCE, in Sri Lanka, at what the Theravada usually reckon as the fourth council.^Still, my intellect is unimpressed by any attempt to regard all that we have achieved in the last few centuries in Western civilization as somehow corrupt or retrograde in tendency.

.The Sutta collections and Vinaya texts of the Pāli Canon (and the corresponding texts in other versions of the Tripitaka), are generally considered by modern scholars to be the earliest Buddhist literature, and they are accepted as authentic in every branch of Buddhism.^Some Muslim scholars view the Koran's word and ideas as fixed, others see their job as reconciling modern life with the text by bending the text to fit new circumstances.

Faith, Religion and Population of WOA!! World Population Awareness28 January 2010 0:44 UTCwww.overpopulation.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^Timmy: “Men are going to have to accept that if they get to have other X partners, then their spouse also gets to have other X partners.

Mahayana school

.Mahayana Buddhism flourished in India from the fifth century AD onwards, during the dynasty of the Guptas.^The Chinese pilgrim Yuan Chwang, who came to India in the second quarter of the seventh century A.D., gives an account of Buddhism along with that Jainism.

.Mahāyāna centres of learning were established, the most important one being the Nālandā University in north-eastern India.^What a pity and a shame, of how far we have fallen from the knowledge of God, Universe And Being, as taught by our most Ancient Cosmic African Ancestors.

^It is just one person’s subjective idea opposed to another with the victor being the one who can amass the most votes in favor of his/her side or the one who can voluntarily conscript the most opposition.

Mahayana schools recognize all or part of the Mahayana Sutras. .Some of these sutras became for Mahayanists a manifestation of the Buddha himself, and faith in and veneration of those texts are stated in some sutras (e.g.^Some of these sutras became for Mahayanists a manifestation of the Buddha himself, and faith in and veneration of those texts are stated in some sutras (e.g.

.Native Mahayana Buddhism is practiced today in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, parts of Russia and most of Vietnam (also commonly referred to as "Eastern Buddhism").^Slavery, as under the Old Covenant is not something widely practiced in most parts of the world today, although I believe that those who are employed by someone come under the obligation of rendering to the employer service, for they are bought with a price too.

.The Buddhism practiced in Tibet, the Himalayan regions, and Mongolia is also Mahayana in origin, but will be discussed below under the heading of Vajrayana (also commonly referred to as "Northern Buddhism". There are a variety of strands in Eastern Buddhism, of which "the Pure Land school of Mahayana is the most widely practised today."^The tradition(s) that fall under the label Buddhism have one primary aspect that is the cornerstone for all the practices--there is a primary goal.

^Slavery, as under the Old Covenant is not something widely practiced in most parts of the world today, although I believe that those who are employed by someone come under the obligation of rendering to the employer service, for they are bought with a price too.

[175]. .In most of this area however, they are fused into a single unified form of Buddhism.^Most children KNOW that they don't exist, however they just like to believe they do because they draw comfort from the idea.

.In Japan in particular, they form separate denominations with the five major ones being: Nichiren, peculiar to Japan; Pure Land; Shingon, a form of Vajrayana; Tendai; and Chan/Zen.^You are the one, as an atheist, who is saying 'it is so because I say it is so' or 'it is so because the majority says it is so', and the majority is never wrong, regardless of how many times they change their mind on a certain issue.

^God remain constant and is of no respect to any particular person, yet there are particular persons that is of respect to God and in so being should be particular about God, the one and only constant in the Universe and beyond.

.In Korea, nearly all Buddhists belong to the Chogye school, which is officially Son (Zen), but with substantial elements from other traditions.^In all If poems (and other traditional Yorb genre such as Ijala and Iwi Egungun), Oldmar is gender neutral.

Vajrayana school

The Vajrayana school of Buddhism spread to China, Mongolia, and Tibet. In Tibet, Vajrayana has always been a main component of Tibetan Buddhism, while in China it formed a separate sect. .However, Vajrayana Buddhism became extinct in China but survived in elements of Japan's Shingon and Tendai sects.^Dogen, one of the founders of zen buddhism in Japan, spent three years at Tien-tng in China, entering whole heartedly into zazen practice.

.There are differing views as to just when Vajrayāna and its tantric practice started.^There is no evolution between kinds, just the ability God created in us to live in/adapt to different conditions and environments.

.In the Tibetan tradition, it is claimed that the historical Śākyamuni Buddha taught tantra, but as these are esoteric teachings, they were passed on orally first and only written down long after the Buddha's other teachings.^"And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign."

^Believers on the other hand have faith first and some have experiences of differing intensity, and the intellectual constructs (if they should indulge in the exercise) are merely expressions of that faith and experience.

.Nālandā University became a center for the development of Vajrayāna theory and continued as the source of leading-edge Vajrayāna practices up through the 11th century.^Nālandā University became a center for the development of Vajrayāna theory and continued as the source of leading-edge Vajrayāna practices up through the 11th century.

These practices, scriptures and theories were transmitted to China, Tibet, Indochina and Southeast Asia. .China generally received Indian transmission up to the 11th century including tantric practice, while a vast amount of what is considered to be Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayāna) stems from the late (9th–12th century) Nālandā tradition.^Srasenas ruled over the region now included in Bharatpur state from the 6th century to the 12th century A.D. Jainism developed much here at this time.

^I was into Zen Buddhism (influenced by the teachings of Alan Watt's and the like) in my late teens and early twenties, but with age my memory is vague on his teachings and the teachings on Buddhism in general.

.In one of the first major contemporary academic treatises on the subject, Fairfield University professor Ronald M. Davidson argues that the rise of Vajrayana was in part a reaction to the changing political climate in India at the time.^Those people who go out and get remarried fall into the same divorce statistics as the one's doing it for the first time.

^You are the one, as an atheist, who is saying 'it is so because I say it is so' or 'it is so because the majority says it is so', and the majority is never wrong, regardless of how many times they change their mind on a certain issue.

.With the fall of the Gupta dynasty, in an increasingly fractious political environment, institutional Buddhism had difficulty attracting patronage, and the folk movement led by siddhas became more prominent.^After the fall of the Guptas and the death of Harsha, there was political vacuum.

Vajrayana combined and developed a variety of elements, a number of which had already existed for centuries.[178].In addition to the Mahāyāna scriptures, Vajrayāna Buddhists recognise a large body of Buddhist Tantras, some of which are also included in Chinese and Japanese collections of Buddhist literature, and versions of a few even in the Pali Canon.^Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

^"Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

.Different schools of Buddhism place varying levels of value on learning the various texts.^It just happens that Buddhism places a lot of focus and value on the fact that there is NOTHING that is totally fixed, static."

.Some schools venerate certain texts as religious objects in themselves, while others take a more scholastic approach.^Some schools venerate certain texts as religious objects in themselves, while others take a more scholastic approach.

.Buddhist scriptures are written in these languages: Pāli, Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese, along with some texts that still exist in Sanskrit and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.^Yet some our people make the false claims that these pyramids exist in the Americas because African people traveled to the Americas before Columbus.

.However, some scholars have referred to the Vinaya Pitaka and the first four Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka as the common core of all Buddhist traditions.^Many people nowadays are spiritually inclined, but take a broad inclusive view to religion, believing that a variety of religious traditions and practices all have some validity.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^In addition to or in connection with the fourth of things described in the first paragraph, the number four holds some very valuable meanings to the primary function of the Church of Sardis.

[179].However, this could be considered misleading, as Mahāyāna considers these merely a preliminary, and not a core, teaching, the Tibetan Buddhists have not even translated most of the āgamas, though theoretically they recognize them, and they play no part in the religious life of either clergy or laity in China and Japan.^But they also need to be assertive, perhaps even aggressive, in their opposition to religious foolishness, and to the apologists for religious dogma, a camp of which, I'm sorry to say NB, you most certainly can count yourself as a member.

The Tyee — Preaching the Word of Atheism19 January 2010 8:48 UTCthetyee.ca [Source type: Original source]

^TIMMY: "The creature could be programmed to have the choice of doing either good or bad, but because the creature is perfect, and because all of the creatures are perfect, none of them would exercise their choice to do bad, giving the illusion that they don't have that choice at all, but rather, they are merely programmed to do only good.

[181].The size and complexity of the Buddhist canons have been seen by some (including Buddhist social reformer Babasaheb Ambedkar) as presenting barriers to the wider understanding of Buddhist philosophy.^You are right that some Buddhists, particularly those born into a society where Buddhism is the dominant philosophy, just take it on faith.

.The followers of Theravāda Buddhism take the scriptures known as the Pāli Canon as definitive and authoritative, while the followers of Mahāyāna Buddhism base their faith and philosophy primarily on the Mahāyāna sūtras and their own vinaya.^Pointing out that philosophies which are not faith based but show the way in self discovery through meditation etc.

^Some believe based on their own experience, others believe because of the faith they have in the experience of others, just as we believe in the work of scientists without having done the science ourselves.

The Pāli sutras, along with other, closely related scriptures, are known to the other schools as the āgamas.

.Over the years, various attempts have been made to synthesize a single Buddhist text that can encompass all of the major principles of Buddhism.^This principle of abrogation, known as "Naskh" is based on the fact that the Qur'an was given to (or made up by) Muhammad in a period of over 20 years.

True History of Islam, Mohammed and the Koran28 January 2010 0:00 UTCbibleprobe.com [Source type: Original source]

^This assumption is based on the version of the Buddhist text Divyvadna 44 which says that he put the price of one hundred dinras for the head of single monk.

.In the Theravada tradition, condensed 'study texts' were created that combined popular or influential scriptures into single volumes that could be studied by novice monks.^A.D. and the scriptural texts were brought into order.

.Dwight Goddard collected a sample of Buddhist scriptures, with the emphasis on Zen, along with other classics of Eastern philosophy, such as the Tao Te Ching, into his 'Buddhist Bible' in the 1920s.^I'd just like to see a world where, instead of saying "I am a Buddhist", people say, "I am practicing Buddhist meditation and I'm really into Buddhist philosophy.

^We need to interpret as God has said, not reading into them something that is not there; in other words, the Author's meaning, not the reader's meaning, what is actually said, not one wants the Scriptures to say because it fits into their pet philosophy of life.

More recently, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar attempted to create a single, combined document of Buddhist principles in "The Buddha and His Dhamma". .Other such efforts have persisted to present day, but currently there is no single text that represents all Buddhist traditions.^Praise Allah, for there is no other but he!

True History of Islam, Mohammed and the Koran28 January 2010 0:00 UTCbibleprobe.com [Source type: Original source]

Pāli Tipitaka

The Pāli Tipitaka, which means "three baskets", refers to the Vinaya Pitaka, the Sutta Pitaka, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka. .The Vinaya Pitaka contains disciplinary rules for the Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as explanations of why and how these rules were instituted, supporting material, and doctrinal clarification.^It is prudent to ask, "Well why exactly do these athesists hate God?"

.The Pāli Tipitaka is the only early Tipitaka (Sanskrit: Tripiṭaka) to survive intact in its original language, but a number of early schools had their own recensions of the Tipitaka featuring much of the same material.^Probably the result would have been that the Austrian State would have been able to survive, but at the same time participation in the use of a common language would have debased the racial quality of the German element.

.We have portions of the Tipitakas of the Sārvāstivāda, Dharmaguptaka, Sammitya, Mahāsaṅghika, Kāśyapīya, and Mahīśāsaka schools, most of which survive in Chinese translation only.^Only the strongest survive, capitalism, all group thinking is based on the survivors being the most fit for that reality.

According to some sources, some early schools of Buddhism had five or seven pitakas.[182]

.According to the scriptures, soon after the death of the Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held; a monk named Mahākāśyapa (Pāli: Mahākassapa) presided.^Generally, a very common charge has been levelled against the uga king Pushyamitra that he was a staunch Brhmaa and caused the death of Buddhist and Jaina monks.

The goal of the council was to record the Buddha's teachings. Upāli recited the vinaya. Ānanda, the Buddha's personal attendant, was called upon to recite the dhamma. .These became the basis of the Tripitaka.^These became the basis of the Tripitaka.

.However, this record was initially transmitted orally in form of chanting, and was committed to text in the last century BCE. Both the sūtras and the vinaya of every Buddhist school contain a wide variety of elements including discourses on the Dharma, commentaries on other teachings, cosmological and cosmogonical texts, stories of the Gautama Buddha's previous lives, and various other subjects.^In the atomic families, isotopes are different forms of the most stable chemical element within a particular group-including the most stable form itself.

.Much of the material in the Canon is not specifically "Theravadin", but is instead the collection of teachings that this school preserved from the early, non-sectarian body of teachings.^This is especially true in low-income schools (where yours truly teaches) with large populations of non-native speakers and minorities.

According to Peter Harvey, it contains material which is at odds with later Theravadin orthodoxy. .He states: "The Theravadins, then, may have added texts to the Canon for some time, but they do not appear to have tampered with what they already had from an earlier period."^This may take some time.

Mahayana Sutras

.The Mahayana sutras are a very broad genre of Buddhist scriptures that the Mahayana Buddhist tradition holds are original teachings of the Buddha.^"Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

^Some Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism."

.The adherents of Mahayana accept both the early teachings (including in this the Sarvastivada Abhidharma, which was criticized by Nagarjuna and is in fact opposed to early Buddhist thought[184]) and the Mahayana sutras as authentic teachings of Gautama Buddha, and claim they were designed for different types of persons and different levels of spiritual understanding.^They do not understand the Spiritual Nature of their Teaching!!

.The Mahayana sutras often claim to articulate the Buddha's deeper, more advanced doctrines, reserved for those who follow the bodhisattva path.^Those who follow him are merciful to one another, but ruthless to unbelievers" Surah 48:29.

True History of Islam, Mohammed and the Koran28 January 2010 0:00 UTCbibleprobe.com [Source type: Original source]

According to Mahayana tradition, the Mahayana sutras were transmitted in secret, came from other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, or were preserved in non-human worlds because human beings at the time couldn't understand them:

Some of our sources maintain the authenticity of certain other texts not found in the canons of these schools (the early schools).^We know that some of these traits are found in other primates and mammals.

.These texts are those held genuine by the later school, not one of the eighteen, which arrogated to itself the title of Mahayana, 'Great Vehicle'. According to the Mahayana historians these texts were admittedly unknown to the early schools of Buddhists.^In 1983, in Ladakh, he met the great Tibetan adept, Thuksey Rinpoche, and undertook with him the Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva vows; later, in 1990, he would collaborate with Sogyal Rinpoche and Patrick Gaffney in the writing of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

However, they had all been promulgated by the Buddha. [The Buddha’s] followers on earth, the sravakas ('pupils'), had not been sufficiently advanced to understand them, and hence were not given them to remember, but they were taught to various supernatural beings and then preserved in such places as the Dragon World.

Approximately six hundred Mahayana sutras have survived in Sanskrit or in Chinese or Tibetan translations. .In addition, East Asian Buddhism recognizes some sutras regarded by scholars to be of Chinese rather than Indian origin.^Since some Indians consider his books controversial because it introduces the Western idea, it must refer to the nature of the relationship rather than technicalities of sex.